Contact:

SANDY PERRY, COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
PHONE: 908-234-1225, EXT. 104
SANDY@NJCONSERVATION.ORG

Lautenberg honored for efforts to increase land conservation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEWARK - Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) was honored by conservationists on Friday, May 8, for his help in securing a two-year extension of a federal income tax incentive for preserving land.

Alison Mitchell, policy director for New Jersey Conservation Foundation, and Amy Hansen, policy analyst, presented Lautenberg with an award on behalf of New Jersey Conservation Foundation and America’s land trusts and conservation community.

“Senator Lautenberg’s support for land

preservation and environmental protection are vital to New Jersey’s future and the health of our nation,” said Mitchell, who visited the senator’s office in Newark. “His valuable assistance helped to secure the extension of the conservation easement tax incentive in the 2008 Farm Bill, an important measure that helps New Jersey’s and America’s land trusts increase the pace of land conservation. The easement incentive is even more important now in New Jersey, when state preservation funding has run out.”

“Protecting our natural lands protects the ecological and economic health of New Jersey - and the nation,” said Senator Lautenberg. "The federal conservation easement tax incentive is a valuable tool in our efforts to save open space."

A conservation easement is a legally enforceable agreement that preserves privately held open space to protect a variety of natural resources, including wildlife habitat, water, farmland and scenic viewsheds.

Conservation easements can be donated to qualified non-profit land trusts and government agencies that agree to monitor the land to ensure that the easement is not violated. Easement donors continue to own their land and control access to it; some conservation easements provide limited public access.

Landowners can receive a federal tax break for donating conservation easements or selling easements at a “bargain sale” (less than market value) price. Landowners receive a tax deduction for making what can amount to a substantial charitable gift, in addition to the knowledge that they are protecting lands that have significant benefits to their community.

The extended tax incentive raises the maximum deduction a donor can take for donating a conservation easement from 30 percent of their adjusted gross income (AGI) in any year to 50 percent; allows qualified farmers and ranchers to deduct up to 100 percent of their AGI; and increases the number of years over which a donor can take deductions, from 6 years to 16 years.

The incentive has motivated owners of many important properties in New Jersey to donate or sell conservation easements at prices significantly below their market value.

Senator Lautenberg’s ongoing commitments to land preservation and environmental protection include co-authoring recent legislation designating Great Falls in Paterson as a national historic park, which will showcase the majesty of the falls and stimulate the region’s economy by encouraging tourism, creating jobs and making the investments to preserve it for future generations.

The Senator has worked to protect our oceans and our coasts in many ways, including by sponsoring the “Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection Act” (S. 1142) with Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) and working to stop ocean dumping.

New Jersey Conservation Foundation is a member of the national Land Trust Alliance, which has worked with local land trusts across the country to help secure and build awareness of the conservation tax incentive among landowners, attorneys and tax advisors. For more information on how to donate a conservation easement, contact New Jersey Conservation Foundation at 908-234-1225.